Residents Meet To Talk Central Corridor LRT Impact

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- People who live and work near University Avenue, where the next light rail line will be built, met on Saturday to talk about the plans and concerns.

The Healthy Corridor for All Coalition released a study about the potential impact of the Central Corridor Light Rail line.

It found that 60 percent of all jobs in St. Paul are on the Central Corridor and 86 percent of the businesses along the line are small businesses that are at risk of getting forced out.

"The small businesses in the area are also worried about making sure that customers have access to their stores because construction phase is going to be three years long and it only takes one month of interruption for a business to go out," said Liz Xiong from St. Paul.

"We are not opposed to light rail coming through. We welcome the light rail. We just want to make sure that we have benefits to this light rail as well," said Eve Swan, also from St. Paul.

Construction of the new light rail line has already begun and should open in 2014.